abscissa
Americannoun
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abscissas,
plural
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abscissae
plural
noun
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abscissas
plural
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The distance of a point from the y-axis on a graph in the Cartesian coordinate system. It is measured parallel to the x-axis. For example, a point having coordinates (2,3) has 2 as its abscissa.
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Compare ordinate
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of abscissa
1690–1700; feminine of Latin abscissus (past participle of abscindere to abscind )
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The lowest ERK2 concentration at which the mass signal of the compound was still observed is shown on the abscissa.
From Nature ● Apr. 22, 2018
Any such event is represented with respect to the co-ordinate system K by the abscissa x and the time t, and with respect to the system K' by the abscissa x' and the time t'.
From Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
With such events the curve b'yb meets the abscissa at some point in each direction; though where this occurs can only be known by continually measuring dwarfs and giants.
From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read
From the Z values thus obtained taken as the ordinate, and the temperature of each experiment as the abscissa, curves were plotted out embodying the results, examples of which are given below.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 821, September 26, 1891 by Various
The ordinate in these curves represents the E.M. variation, and the abscissa the time.
From Response in the Living and Non-Living by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose
To find these speeds we load the brake to different weights, and plot the resulting speeds and horse powers as abscissae and ordinates producing the curve, BB.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 by Various
The abscissae represent intervals of time, the ordinates the measured lengths of the growing filament.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" by Various
Two lines or axes at right angles to each other are chosen, intersecting at a point called the origin; the horizontal axis is the axis of abscissae, the vertical one the axis of ordinates.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
The abscissae, or horizontal distances, are temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit from 30 degrees below zero, at the left, to 220 degrees above, at the right.
From Seasoning of Wood by J. B. (Joseph Bernard) Wagner
The speeds are plotted as abscissae, and the electrical work absorbed in watts divided by 746 as ordinates; then with a series-wound motor we obtain the curve, EE.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 by Various
By the end of the day, the sand is crisscrossed with a mesh of ordinates, abscissas, curves to account for everything in nature.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
In permeability curves the total magnetization of the given pieces of iron are plotted as abscissas, while the corresponding permeabilities are plotted as ordinates.
From Cyclopedia of Telephony & Telegraphy Vol. 1 A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. by Kempster Miller
The areas of the wound are plotted as ordinates with the respective times of observation measured in days as abscissas.
From Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski
We take now for the axis of abscissas the diameter PQ, and the conjugate diameter for the axis of ordinates.
From An Elementary Course in Synthetic Projective Geometry by Derrick Norman Lehmer
The preceding tables, in which the ordinates represent the number of correct reproductions and the abscissas the age, are interesting.
From Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene by G. Stanley Hall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
